The Irish Bomfords

John Pratt Winter’s history of the Winter family gives the date of Stephen’s death as 24th May 1806 which agrees with the will probate date of 11th July. He was about 88 when he died. Both Stephen and his wife Elizabeth were buried in Laracor Churchyard.

18.1.2 Will of Stephen of Rahinstown 4th October 1800

In the terms of the marriage settlement of Stephen and Elizabeth of 17th April 1745 (8.2) the following sums had been set-aside for the children, £3,000 and £1,000 and a second £1,000. The will assigns this money as follows:

£1,000 to Ephraim (19.2)
£1,000 to Chichester (19.2.1)
£1,990 to be shared between Anthony and George
£5 to Margaret
£5 to Frances Jane

In addition the following bequests are made:

Margaret: An annuity of £30 when her husband John Mockler of Trim dies.
Anthony: £ 1,000, this is to go to George if Anthony should die.
Also an annuity of £60 provided he looks after his mother, Stephen’s wife Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: An annuity of £50, and £50 to buy mourning clothes.
Also his carriage and the best pair of carriage mares, all the china and books, and half of the household linen.
George: All the estates, cattle, furniture, etc.
Robert: 5/-.

The sole executor of the will is George Bomford.

Probate dated 11th July 1806 is attached to the will. A note on the back of the will states "26 June 1811 This Probate was this day read on the hearing of these cases." The case appears to be Bomford v Hamilton (mentioned again in 18.9.4)

1. The eldest living son was Robert, and all he received from the will was five shillings (25p in modern currency). It certainly looks as though Stephen did attempt to disinherit Robert and to ignore the entail of those lands which had been made in his marriage settlement (8.2). As will be seen this was all sorted out between the brothers, George and Robert, in 1808 (18.8.3).

2. The marriage settlement of 1812 (18.6.1) records that at the death of Stephen the children alive then were Robert and “three younger sons and two daughters, to wit George Bomford, Ephraim Bomford, and Chichester Bomford, Margaret then (1806) the wife and now (1812) the widow and relict of John Mockler Esquire, and Frances Jane now and then the wife of Colonel Cromwell Massy.” This confirms that:

a. The eldest son, Thomas, died on 29th March 1783 (16.9). He was mentioned in the will of Rev Partridge of 1774 (11.10) when he must have been about 25.

b. The third son, Stephen, is not mentioned; he died in late 1790 or early 1791 (15.9).

c. The sixth son, Trevor, died in February 1797 (18.5.1).

d. The third daughter, Mariana, was also mentioned in the will of 1774 (11.10), but this was the only mention of her; she has died (16.9).

Of the family that were alive at the time of the will of 1800 but died before the settlement of 1812:

e. The fourth son Anthony died between his will of 1805 (18.2) and his father’s death. Because Anthony had died George got the whole of the £1,990 which included the bequest to Anthony of £1,000.

f. John Mockler died between 1806 and 1812. His wife Margaret (15.6) survived him. She is mentioned in the inventory of George’s estate of 1814 and that is the last time she is mentioned.

18.1.3 Death of Elizabeth wife of Stephen of Rahinstown 1807

1807 is recorded in the prerogative wills as the date of Elizabeth’s will and it is thought that she died that year.

Stephen’s will specified that Anthony was to look after his mother but Anthony had died. The will coupled Anthony and George together and it is thought that George took over. It will be remembered that Robert Sibthorpe leased the land of Ross in 1772 and that he had to build a house there within seven years. In 1781 Robert Sibthorpe handed over the land in trust to George Bomford for the sole use of his sister Elizabeth when her husband Stephen should die.

It rather looks as though Elizabeth did not use the house at Ross, but remained at Rahinstown for the year or so before she died. George was certainly living at Rahinstown until his father died in May 1806, but in May 1807 he was living at Clarkestown House. My guess is that he moved after his mother had died in the first few months of 1807, and that Elizabeth died in her own bed at Rahinstown where she had slept for the previous 62 years. She and Stephen were married for 61 years and had outlived five of their eleven children; they were buried together in Laracor churchyard.

18.2 Will of Anthony, 4th son of Stephen of Rahinstown 22nd September 1805

“To my sister Margaret, wife of John Mockler of Trim, £100; this sum is not to be in anyway controlled by her husband, and is to be paid after his death.

To Mary Anne Bomford, elder daughter of my brother Trevor, £400 to be paid at the age of 21.

To Rose Frances Bomford, younger daughter of my brother Trevor, £400 to be paid at the age of 21.

To my brother George Bomford of Rahinstown everything else. He is the residual legatee and the sole executor.”

Anthony’s signature is witnessed by Isaac Bomford.

Anthony was ‘of Rahinstown’ so he must have died there during the eight months between the date of his will and his father’s death in May 1806. It is not known when he was born but he would have been about 48 when he died. Anthony was not married and was only mentioned in the documents concerning his father’s will, so there is no clue as to what he did during his life.

18.3 Ephraim Bomford, 7th Son of Stephen of Rahinstown

Not much is known about Ephraim. He was born in 1761, which date comes from a ‘life’ in the lease of Ross of 1772 (15.3.1). This lease also gives the birth dates of George and Trevor.

Most of what is known comes from the various Almanacks, which produced Army Lists of field ranking officers. There were no Army Lists before the early 1800s (but see next paragraph). Ephraim was gazetted a Major in the Royal Marines in 1810; he was probably acting as a major before then because the deed of 4th May 1809 (19.2) refers to him as a major in ‘ye Marine Force’. To be a major probably meant that he had already served at least 15 years unless he had purchased his commission, which is unlikely. Working back 15 years would mean that he joined aged 34 in 1795, which is an unlikely age to join up. It would be better to assume that he joined in his early 20s, say in 1785.

The British Army's List of Officers as they Rank in the Army goes back well beyond 1800. The 32nd edition is dated March 1784 and they were produced annually. The 1791 edition at page 229 lists Ephraim Bomford as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Forces on full pay with service dating from 21 November 1780. He was on half or reduced pay from at least 1785 to 1789 (i.e. not on active service). The 1796 edition at page 343 lists Ephraim Bomford as a First Lieutenant in the Royal Marines from 18 April 1795. The 1804 edition at page 385 lists Ephraim Bomford as a Captain in the Royal Marines since 1 January 1798. The 1810 edition at page 451 has him still as a Captain. He is not listed in the 1822 edition.

The Dublin Almanacks list him as a major until 1815 and he is omitted from the Army Lists of 1816 onwards. It is most likely that he died in 1815 aged 54, but he may have resigned; there would not be much future for a major of that age now that the Napoleonic War was over.

He is not mentioned again and there is no record of a marriage.

18.4 Chichester Bomford, 8th son of Stephen of Rahinstown

It is not known when Chichester was born, but obviously after Ephraim in 1761. He is mentioned in the Rev Partridge’s will of 1774 (11.10) so he must have been a few years old then, and the best estimate would be sometime during the eight years from 1762 to 1770, I have made it c1765.

The Dublin Almanacks record that he was gazetted on 15th June 1804 as a Lieutenant of the Waterford, or 33rd, Regiment of Militia and he is listed as such from 1805 to 1810. He was also Regimental Paymaster in those years. He is not listed in the 1799 Army List of the Militia so he must have joined in the first few years of the new century, but he may have purchased his commission and joined in 1804. Neither is he listed in the 1811 Almanack and the paymaster’s name has been left blank that year, so it looks as though he resigned in 1810. He is only about 46 at this date so he may have transferred to another regiment. A transfer is more likely as this might not only take him to England where he died, but would account for Burke’s entry “Chichester, Captain, 88th Regt.” (which later became the Connaught Rangers).

The British Army's List of Officers as they Rank in the Army 1787 edition at page 130 lists Chichester Bumford (with a u) as an Ensign in the 67th Regiment of Foot from 28 June 1786. He is listed similarly up to the 1790 edition at page 146, but not listed in the 1791 to 1794 editions. He reappears in the 1796 edition at page 280 as Chichester Bomford (with an o), Captain in the 88th Regiment of Foot from 1 September 1795, and remains there as Captain until at least the 1801 edition at page 326. The 1802 edition was missing in the series I saw. Chichester is not listed in the 1803 and 1804 editions. So Chichester's service with the 88th predates his service in the Waterford Militia.

But to revert to the Waterford Militia, I wondered why Chichester selected this regiment when his friends were probably serving in the Meath Militia and then it was discovered that Militia Regiments formed in 1793 never served in their county of origin. For instance during the 1798 rising, it was the Carlow Militia which fought in Meath, while the Meath Militia saw active service in Wexford that year. It is therefore possible that Chichester joined the Waterford unit because it was stationed near Rahinstown, perhaps in the garrison town of Kilcock, Co Kildare.

He made his will in 1824 (prerogative wills) in Bristol and died there aged about 60. There is no record of any marriage.

18.5 Trevor Bomford, 6th son of Stephen of Rahinstown

When Trevor married Mary (McDonnell) in September 1789 (15..8) she had been married before and had had a child, Jane Maria. Mary’s first husband was John Bateman of Dromultin, Co Kerry, so Trevor’s stepdaughter was named Jane Maria Bateman.

During the eight years of their marriage Trevor and Mary had two girls. Trevor died in 1797 and when Mary died in 1809 (probate) these two children were in their late teens. George Bomford was appointed guardian of these two, Marianna (or Mary Anne) Bomford and her younger sister Rose Jane Bomford. Trevor's children and grandchildren are detailed below and summarised at 18.7.10.

18.5.1 Death of Trevor Bomford February 1797

The Prerogative Grants give the date of Trevor’s death as 1797. Betham records that he died intestate and that administration was granted to Mary ‘the widow and relict’ on 2nd March 1797, it is therefore likely that he died in February, he was only 37, and was buried at Laracor.

18.5.2 Death of Mary Bomford (Probate) 22nd July 1809

The probate of this date states:

“Mary Bomford died intestate leaving two daughters, Marianne Bomford and Rose Jane Bomford. George Bomford of Clarkestown is appointed guardian of the two minors, and executor of Mary Bomford of Gardiner’s Place, City of Dublin.” Marianne, or Mary Anne, could have been born as early as 1790 and so she would have been a minor until at least 1811.

Similarly the younger daughter Rose Jane could have been a minor until 1812. Rose Jane was called Rose Frances in Anthony’s will, Frances Rose in her marriage settlement which she signs as Frances Rosetta, and in the lineage concerning the Bomford Arms she is named as Rosetta.

Mary Bomford must have died in 1809, or perhaps 1808, in Gardiner’s Place; No 27 Gardiner’s Place belonged to George Bomford. She was buried with her husband Trevor in the Laracor Churchyard.

18.5.3 Marriage of Mary Anne Bomford & Francis Chute 13th February 1810

The date of this marriage has been in Burke for a number of editions and the date matches well with the Dublin Marriage Licences by Betham which state: “Francis Chute of Chute Hall, Co Kerry, Esq., and Marianna Bomford of the Parish of St George, spinster, 9th February 1810.” The Church record confirms the 13 February 1810 date.

From this one can assume that the marriage took place in Dublin and most likely from Gardiner’s Place. Mary Anne was married as a minor aged 20 or younger and her guardian George Bomford no doubt gave her away.

18.5.4 The Chute Family

The first Chute to come to Ireland was George Chute, a military officer who arrived at the time of the rebellion of the Earl of Desmond and his son ‘Silken Thomas’ during the reign of Henry VIII. He was granted lands in the Dingle Peninsular but lost them soon after in the later upheavals. His son, Daniel Chute acquired the lands of Tulligaron by marriage and settled there. Tulligaron, subsequently called Chute Hall, was confirmed by patent in 1630 and lies three miles east of Tralee. (The Chutes of Chute Hall are described in Burkes Landed Gentry of Ireland 1912 edition at page 111)

Francis Chute’s more immediate relations were:

Grand parents:

Francis Chute of Chute Hall, High Sheriff of Kerry 1757, married 8th August 1761 and died 1782. His wife was Ruth, daughter of Sir Riggs Falkiner, Bart, of Anne Mount, Co Cork.

Parents:

Richard Chute of Chute Hall, born 1763, High Sheriff of Kerry 1786, married firstly in 1785 Agnes, daughter of Rowland Bateman of Oak Park. Francis was her eldest son. Her first cousin was John Bateman of Dromultin who married Mary McDonnell in May 1771. Mary married Trevor Bomford secondly (15.8.5), thus Mary Anne and Francis Chute were cousins of a sort. Richard married secondly Elizabeth Maunsell of Limerick.

Uncles and Aunts:

1. Falkiner, Captain 22nd Light Dragoons, married and had an only daughter, Catherine, Francis’ cousin, who married as his first wife William Cooke of Retreat (see 8.3.1 which connects with Anne Bomford and her husband Owen Daly of Mornington).

2. Caleb, Captain 69th Foot, married Elizabeth Yielding. They both died in 1851 but had no children.

3. Francis married Jane Rowan and had a boy and a girl. The girl married Thomas Sandes of Sallowglen (15.8.5/6).

4. Arthur married Frances Lindsay and died 1863. They had two sons and two daughters.

5. Margaret Chute married Thomas William Sandes of Sallowglen, Co Kerry.

6. Ruth Chute married Thomas Elliot of Co Kerry and died 1875 having had one son.

Brothers and sisters:

1. Rowland of Lee Brook, near Tralee, Captain 58th Regiment, married Frances daughter of Colonel James Crosbie of Ballyheigue Castle (15.8.6). They had two sons and two daughters, and the eldest son was still living at Lee Brook in 1910.

2. Letitia married William Raymond and had children

3. Ruth married as his second wife William Cooke of Retreat (see above) and died 1862

4. Agnes married Richard Mason of Co Limerick and had children.

Step brothers and sisters by his father’s second wife Elizabeth:

5. William married and died 1850 having had a son and a daughter

6. Richard, doctor of Tralee, married and died 1856 having had two sons and a daughter.

7. Elizabeth Chute married and died in 1862 without children.

8. Dorothea Chute married 1824 and had children.

9. Margaret Chute died 1883 unmarried.

Francis Chute inherited Chute Hall but, since we do not know the date of his father’s death, we do not know when he succeeded to the property. His father was only 47 at the time of the wedding so Mary Anne may not have lived there as ‘the Mistress’. However they go to Chute Hall as their eldest son was born there the year after their marriage. Mary Anne died in 1815 aged about 25. In the five years of her marriage she had three sons and a daughter so most of her married life was spent having children.

Francis Chute was born about 1786 and served for a while as a Captain in the Kerry Militia. After Mary Anne died in 1815 he married secondly Arabella, daughter of the Reverend Maynard Denny of Churchill and brother of Sir Barry Denny of Tralee. He had four more children before Arabella died: Francis who served with the 70th Regiment and died in 1853; Arthur who served with the 94th Regiment and died in 1890; Arabella; and Penelope who died in 1863; none of these children appear to have married.

Francis then married thirdly Penelope Antonia, fourth daughter of Richard Townsend Herbert of Cahirnane, MP for Kerry. Francis died on 12th August 1849 without any more children, and his third wife lived on until 7th May 1870.

Children of Mary Anne and Francis Chute

1. Richard Chute was born at Chute Hall on 22nd May 1811. He was educated at Clonmell School and Trinity College, Dublin, (BA 1834, MA 1842). He became a JP and was DL of Kerry. He married twice (see below) and died on 13th September 1862, aged 51.

2. Sir Trevor Chute, K.C.B, served with the army and became a general. In 1868 he married Ellen the eldest daughter of Samuel Browning of Auckland, New Zealand. He died on 12 March 1886 in his early 70s without children.

3. Rowland Chute died in August 1851 unmarried aged about 37.

4. Mary Chute married William Harnett. They had children.

The eldest son, Richard Chute, married firstly on 18th October Theodora, daughter and heir of Arthur Blennerhassett of Blennerville and Helen Jane his wife, daughter of Thomas 1st Lord Ventry, and grand-daughter of Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, Bart, of Blennerville. She died on 25th July 1845. Their children were:

1. Francis Blennerhassett Chute of Chute Hall and Blennerville, born 18th September 1837, served as a lieutenant in the Kerry Militia, became a JP and was DL of Kerry in 1865. On 6th February 1869 he married Cherubina Herbert D’Esterre Roberts, eldest daughter of Norcott Roberts of Ardmore, Passage West, Co Cork. He died in 1902 having had five children:

a. Richard Aremburg Blennerhassett Chute of Chute Hall, born 24th June 1870, served with the East Surrey Regiment and became a Captain in the Manchester Regiment.

b. Arthur Torrens Chute, born 5th October 187.

c. Challoner Francis Trevor Chute, born 2nd April 1885 and married 29th June 1911 Maud E. St Clair, daughter of Edward O’Brien Hobson of Myler’s Park, Wexford.

d. Theodora Evelyn Chute.

e. Cherry Herbert Ada Chute.

2. Arthur Rowland Chute, born 20th December 1838, served with the 90th Regiment and died unmarried in Calcutta on 23rd February 1858 aged 20.

3. Trevor Bomford Chute died July 1846 aged about 6.

4. Melicent Agnes Chute, married 30th April 1867 Robert Leslie JP and DL, of Tarbet House, Co Kerry, and had three sons and two daughters. She died 19th October 1904 and he on 12th July 1914.

5. Helena Jane Chute married 30th November 1875 Captain Francis Ogilvie Fuller of the 101st Regiment. He died without children 19th September 1876.

Richard Chute married secondly on 3rd March 1847 the Honourable Rose De Moleyn; second daughter of Thomas Townsend Aremburg, 3rd Lord Ventry of Ventry, Co Kerry. They had 7 children before he died on 13th September 1862; she lived on until 21st April 1898.

6. Thomas Aremburg Chute was born on 14th October 1853.

7. Richard Trevor Chute, born 17th July 1856 and served with the 66th Regiment. He was killed as a lieutenant in the Battle of Miawand during the Second Afghan War on 20th July 1880.

8. Mary Anne Chute married in November 1879 Milhem Shakoor Bey of the Lebanon and of the Ministry of War, Egypt. They had two children, Trevor Konsoor Bey born 1880 and Luceya Rose Bey.

9. Theodora Eliza Chute

10. Rosa Chute married 28th September 1889 Henry Dudgeon of the Priory, Stillorgan, Co Dublin, and had five children; Cyril Henry Dudgeon born 1890, Dorothy, Rose and her twin sister Florence, and Lilian Mary.

11. Frances Ruth died 10th August 1871 as a child.

12. Arabella Emily

The Battle of Miawand in which Lieut Richard Trevor Chute, Mary Anne’s grandson, was killed took place near Kandahar just as General Roberts (later Field Marshall, Earl Roberts) and all the British troops were about to leave Afghanistan at the end of the war.

Ayub Khan, the brother of the deposed and banished Amir Yakub Khan, rose up and annihilated the whole British force at Kandahar. General Roberts at once left Kabul for Kandahar; about 300 miles southwest, with 10,000 picked men and on 31st August 1880 defeated Ayub Khan

18.5.5 Military Bomford Connections 1849

The Bengal Army List of 1849 lists three Bomford relations all serving with the 70th, or Surrey, Regiment of Foot which landed in Bengal on the 17th May 1849 and were stationed at Dum-Dum outside Calcutta.

1. Trevor Chute, Mary Anne's second son who later became a General and got the KCB was gazetted a major on 23rd April 1847. Earlier he had served as a Lieutenant with the Ceylon Rifle Regiment.

2. Francis Chute, Trevor’s stepbrother, was gazetted a Lieutenant on the same day, 23rd April 1847. Francis died unmarried in 1853 and was most probably still in India

3. Edward L’Estrange, who then was gazetted Captain on 9th November 1846 and was with the other two at Dum-Dum. He became a Major General having served with the 14th Regiment in the Peninsular war and now with the Surrey Regiment in India, (27.10). Edward was the great-grandson of Edmund L’Estrange, and Edmund was the younger brother of Samuel L’Estrange who married Anne Bomford in 1750 (8.5).

Edward’s nephew was Edward Napoleon L’Estrange (27.10) who was also to serve in India later, and who married Belinda Emily Bomford, daughter of Isaac North-Bomford, in 1878.

Edward L’Estrange had two cousins, Francis and his younger brother Edmund, who were also in India at this time. However they were serving with the troops of the Honourable East India Company. It was not until after the Indian Mutiny of 1857 that the East India Company’s private army became the Indian Army answerable to the Crown.

Francis L’Estrange, born 27th October 1823, joined the army in 1843 and was gazetted a Lieutenant on 19th January 1846. In 1849 he was at Meerut with the 30th Regiment of Native Infantry as an acting Captain. He died at Agra in October 1855, aged 32.

Edmund L’Estrange, born 4th April 1828, joined the army in 1845. In 1849 he was an acting Lieutenant with the 22nd Regiment of Native Infantry at Rawalpindi. He died in India on 20th August 1868, aged 40.

4. Frederic James L’Estrange. Another L’Estrange with the Surrey Regiment was Frederic James, who became an Apothecary in July 1848 and was about to join the regiment at Dum-Dum. He does not appear to be a direct relation.

18.5.6 The Blennerhassett Family

This family, which has occurred a number of times in these pages, traces its origin to Blennerhassett in Cumberland. The earliest record is in 1270 when Alan De Blennerhassett was pardoned for manslaughter. The family remained around Carlisle until Thomas received a grant of land in Kerry in the time of Queen Elizabeth. His son Robert was MP for Tralee in 1613 and 1635 - 1639 and got more land including Ballyseedy Castle just outside Tralee. Yet more land was granted to his son John of Ballycarty who died in 1676. This John had three sons and three daughters, the eldest son and his descendants remained at Ballyseedy until the place was sold in 1967 and it is now a hotel. Ballyseedy is in the same parish as the two Chute properties of Chute Hall and Spring Hill, and it is likely that the Blennerhassetts were the head landlords of the Chutes. The family may have a distant line of descent from Edward III Plantegenet via Martha Lynn born c1608 at Southwick Hall Northamptonshire (John Davies NTL emails Apr 2011 provide the available evidence).

The branch of the family with Bomford connections is from the 2nd son Robert, MP for Tralee 1634, High Sheriff 1682, who married Alice, an heiress of Edward Conway of Castle Conway near Killorglin, Co Kerry. Their first two sons died young and the third son, called ‘Black Jack’ of Castle Conway, was one of the eight Kerry gentlemen who supported King William. He was captured in March 1688 while trying to join Lord Kingston at Sligo with 200 others and imprisoned for 14 months at Galway and then at Dublin under sentence of death. He was released in 1690, married and died about 1738. A daughter was Catherine Blennerhassett, whose grandson was Henry Martin (1710-1773) (21.8.3).

Black Jack’s eldest son, Conway 1693 - 1724, had five children, and it was his second son (name not known) who was the father of Conway Blennerhassett of Reen Lodge. Conway married Jane Maria Bateman c1793; Jane Maria was the daughter of John Bateman of Dromultin and Mary McDonnell who married secondly Trevor Bomford. Conway died and Jane Maria married secondly Pierce Crosbie in 1803 (15.8.4).

Black Jack’s second son John, born 1696, married Anne, a daughter of Colonel James Dawson of Ballynacourty (New Forest), Co Tipperary. Anne was a great-aunt of Maria Massy-Dawson who married Robert Bomford of Rahinstown. John and Anne Blennerhassett had a daughter Elizabeth who in 1754 married Robert Bolton of Brazeel. The great-grandson of these Boltons was Richard Bolton of Bective Abbey who in 1821 married Frances Georgina Bomford, the daughter of Robert and Maria of Rahinstown (21.6.3)

To return to Robert and Avice Blennerhassett, whose third son was ‘Black Jack’, their sixth son was Henry of Gortmasherry. Henry’s fourth son was Robert who married Frances Yielding whose mother was the daughter of Rowland Bateman of Oak Park (Killeen). The eldest son of Robert and Frances died young and their second son Rowland became the first baronet in 1809. Sir Roland Blennerhassett had a number of children and it was his fourth son Arthur who inherited Blennerville. Arthur, 1716 - 1839, married Helena, a daughter of Thomas 1st Lord Ventry, and had two daughters, Millicent and Theodora. Theodora married Richard Chute, the eldest son of Mary Anne Bomford and Francis Chute, and she inherited Blennerville in 1839 (18.5.4). The village of Blennerville used to be the port of Tralee until a canal was dug to Tralee about 1838; since then, Blennerville has become a backwater. It is doubtful if there was a Blennerhassett house in Blennerville.

18.5.7 Kerry Houses 1838

In 1838 Lewis records the following Bomford ‘relations’ residing in Co Kerry:

Chute Hall: Richard Chute, eldest son of Mary Anne (Bomford).

Spring Hill: Captain Francis Chute husband of Mary Anne (Bomford). He was then aged 52 and must have left Chute Hall for his son who was just starting his family.

Lee Brook: Rowland Chute, brother-in-law of Mary Anne (Bomford)

Ballyseedy House: Arthur Blennerhassett, but occupied by Sir Edward Denny, a relative of Arabella who was Francis Chute’s second wife.

Oak Park or Killeen: John Bateman

Ballyheigue Castle: Colonel James Crosbie. The Lewis ‘subscribers’ include in this parish “Rev J P Chute, A M and J P”.

Ardfert Abbey: William Talbot Crosbie and his mother ‘Mrs’ Crosbie.

Lislaghtin Abbey: Pierce Crosbie, son of Jane Maria (Bomford)

Rusheen: Francis Crosbie, son of Jane Maria (Bomford)

Tarbet House: Robert Leslie. He later married Melicent Agnes grand-daughter of Mary Anne (Bomford).

18.6 Marriage – Frances Rose Bomford & Samuel Pratt Winter 20th July 1812

Most of the details of the following come from the diary of John Pratt Winter [in the National Library of Ireland?]. Chapter 20 concerns the Winter family; this chapter includes this marriage and the children of the marriage.

From Winter’s diary

“Frances Rose (or Rosetta) Bomford was born c1792 at Rahinstown, the younger daughter of Trevor Bomford (and Mary McDonnell, widow of John Bateman), orphaned, and brought up under the guardianship of her uncle, George Bomford of Drumlargan. She was sent to Rome in 1810 (aged 18) under the care of her spinster aunt, Anna Maria (Winter), to study singing and composition under a Dr Sanctis. On her return to Dublin she gave public singing performances and had her songs published.”

Samuel Pratt Winter was the youngest child of Samuel Winter (1741- 1811) (20.4) and Margaret Robbins (1735 - 1814). He was born on 25th February 1779 at Agher. In June 1795 he entered Trinity where he got his BA in 1800, but he showed little interest in a professional career. In 1802 his father gave him £3,000 and sent him off “as an assistant to learn business” to a firm at Aldershot. Six years later he was back “having been forced by illness to give up business and having lost every last shilling of the £3,000.” After this he does not appear to have any real occupation and lived on £750 a year bequeathed to him by his father. He died in 1830.

18.6.1 Marriage Settlement 27th February 1812

Between:

1. Samuel Pratt Winter, 3rd son of Samuel Winter late of Agher deceased.

2. George Bomford of Clarkestown and guardian to Frances Rose Bomford.

3. John Pratt Winter of Agher (20.4), elder brother to Samuel Pratt Winter; and Isaac Bomford of Gallow. (The two trustees)

4. Frances Rose Bomford, spinster, a minor. (She signs the deed as Frances Rosetta Bomford)

5. Robert Bomford of Rahinstown. (Uncle of Frances Rose)

(All the above sign this very long eight page document)

Reciting:

1. Stephen Bomford’s (c1722-1806) will of 4 October 1800 (18.1.2)

2. The marriage settlement of Stephen Bomford and Elizabeth Sibthorpe of 1745, (8.2) which lists the entailed lands of Derpatrick, Arrodstown, Baconstown and Rahenstown.

Now Frances Rose Bomford and Samuel Pratt Winter are about to be married. Frances Rose’s fortune is about £600 which George Bomford will make up to £5,000, out of which £2,990 will be held in trust for the issue “share and share alike” when they reach the age of 21 or their marriage, whichever comes earlier, but the 6% interest will be available to Samuel Pratt Winter. The trustees will be John Pratt Winter and Isaac Bomford.

Witnessed: Myles O’Reilly (George Bomford’s solicitor) and Thomas Maguire.

(Book 611 Page 46 No 443488. This was not found in the Registry of Deeds, but the following explanatory text was found in a different book with the same number: Book 639 Page 48 No 443488)

The £600 was the whole of the property which Frances Rose inherited from her father, Trevor Bomford, and her mother, Mary Bomford, who are both dead.

Signed: Samuel Pratt Winter and George Bomford

Witnessed: Myles O’Reilly of Margaret Place, Dublin, Attorney at Law

(Book 639 Page 48 No 443488)

The marriage licence, issued by the Diocese of Dublin (page 241), states, “Bomford, Frances Rose, and Samuel Pratt Winter 1812 ML”.

The marriage took place at Wesley Chapel in Dublin on 20th July 1812 (St George parish records original document state that the marriage was on 28 February 1812, the day after the date of the settlement) and the reception was probably at George Bomford’s town house at 27 Gardiners Place.

The settlement does not state what Samuel Pratt Winter received under the terms of his father’s will, but this was known to all parties as Samuel Winter only died the previous year; in money he may have got the £3,000 which his father gave him in 1802; in land he must have got Oakley Park in King’s County because for some years Burke records him as ‘of Oakley Park, King’s Co’. Indeed he may have got all the King’s County property of Castletown, which included Oakley Park, Fea (or Feagh), Forelacky and Kinnetty. Certainly at some stage he or his eldest, George, came into some of the King’s County property because the ‘Landowners of Ireland’ of 1878 records that George Winter was living in the Fiji Islands but owned 773 acres in King’s County with a valuation of £460, and because of Burke’s entry this must include Oakley Park.

This Oakley Park, as opposed to the later Bomford property of the same name at Kells, lies across the parish boundary of Parsonstown (now Birr) and St Kiernan, and adjoins Castletown, which an earlier Samuel Winter (1603 - 1666) (20.1.1) acquired from the Cromwellian Settlement. There is no record of any Winter living there, nor indeed in Castletown, and it can be assumed that at this date the estate was leased - probably to a Mr Stoney. In 1838 Lewis records that Oakley Park belonged “to the late Mr Stoney”. Burke has two Stoneys of Oakley Park, James Johnston Stoney (1759-1824) and his eldest son George Stoney (1792 - ?) who married Anne Blood (1801 - 1883), a daughter of Bindon (‘The Vampire’) Blood. Bindon Blood’s cousin was Neptune Blood whose grand-daughter married George Thomas Lyndon Bolton, the eldest son of Jemima Letitia Bolton (Bomford), one of the many daughters of Robert Bomford of Rahinstown. Further research is needed to find out who actually owned Oakley Park, but it looks as though the Winters were the head landlords and the Stoneys leased it.

Trevor and Mary Bomford must have been fairly comfortably off, but without any large surplus of money; a dowry of £600 was quite reasonable for a younger daughter of those days. It would appear that £4,400 of Frances Rose’s fortune was due to the generosity of her uncle and guardian, George Bomford, but the following deed clarifies this.

18.6.2 Change of Trustees of 1812 Settlement 27th September 1831

Between:

1. John Pratt Winter of Agher (brother-in-law to Frances), and Isaac Bomford of Blessington Street, Dublin (first cousin of Frances, father, Trevor)

2. Samuel Pratt Winter of Agher, and Frances Rose Winter (Bomford), his wife

3. Robert George Bomford of Rahinstown

4. Henry Chinnery, Justice, of Denzill Street, Dublin, and John Tew Armstrong of North Frederick Street, Dublin.

In the marriage settlement of Stephen Bomford and Elizabeth Bomford (Sibthorpe) his wife (8.2), Robert George Bomford was entitled to two sums, of £1,990 and £1,000. These sums (£2,990) were made over [in trust] to Frances Rose Bomford on her marriage (18.6.1). Now the trustees are Henry Chinnery (Justice) and John Tew Armstrong. (Book 875 Page 375 No 581375)

The inheritance of £5,000 of Frances Rose came in three lots:

1. The £600 from her parents.

2. £2990, the trust money for her children, came from her grandfather Stephen. Stephen died in 1806 and George Bomford was his trustee and so paid the money to Frances Rose on her marriage.

3. £1,410 was apparently a gift from her guardian, George Bomford, and a handsome wedding present considering that George was just starting his own family.

The Trustees

The original trustees were John Pratt Winter and Isaac Bomford. They are both elderly in 1831, being 63 and 65 respectively, and giving up the trusteeship. The new trustees are Henry Chinnery Justice, he was not Henry Chinnery a Justice, and John Tew Armstrong. The latter was holding a mortgage on Rahinstown in 1831 and was also a relative; his great-great-aunt was Elizabeth Tew who married Thomas Bomford in 1691 (1.10).

After the marriage the couple lived at Clarkestown House until 1820 and their first five children were born there. In 1820 they went off for a brief stay with the rest of the Winter family in Paris. Then they went to Christleton, near Chester, whilst Samuel pursued his business interests in Liverpool. They returned to Ireland in September 1827 and leased a house, 78 Phibsborough Avenue, near Clontarf in Dublin before moving to Fitzgibbon Avenue, just off Mountjoy Square, in 1830.

Frances Rose, 'who had been in poor health for some years, died of brain fever on 16th October 1831 and was buried alongside her parents in Laracor Churchyard.' Samuel’s sister, Anna Maria, came to the rescue and looked after their young family. Two months later, on 11th December 1831, Samuel died of 'apoplexy' and was buried in the Winter vault at Agher.

The Dublin Evening Mail of Wednesday 19 October 1831 recorded at page 2, 'DIED . . . On the 16th inst., after a short illness, in the 39th year of her age, Mrs. Samuel Pratt Winter, of Philipsbourg Avenue' (Cindy Hann email 23 Feb 2015). The Dublin Morning Register of Tuesday 20 December 1831 recorded at page 1, 'DEATHS . . . At his residence, No. 4, Sherrard-street, Samuel Pratt Winter, Esq., in his 52d year' (Cindy Hann email 23 Feb 2015).

Some years before his death Samuel, whose health was declining, made a trust for his children and made his bachelor brother, Rev Francis Winter, both the trustee and guardian of the eight orphaned children.

The children remained in Dublin under the supervision of their somewhat eccentric maiden aunt, Anna Maria Winter.

18.7 The Children of Samuel Pratt Winter & Frances Rose Bomford

Eldest	Mary	born 27th April 1814	at Clarkestown House
	George	born 17th May 1815	at Clarkestown House
	Samuel Pratt	born 17th July 1816	at Clarkestown House
	Margaret	born 21st November 1817	at Clarkestown House
	Frances Jane	born 5th August 1819	at Clarkestown House
	Arbella	born 4th March 1821	at Richmond in Dublin
	Trevor	born 21st August 1822	in Dublin
Youngest	Anna Maria Sarah	born 13th August 1824

The Winter history places the family in England from 1820 to 1827, so there may be a discrepancy in the Dublin births of 1821 and 1822. However it is only a night crossing from Liverpool to Dublin.

18.7.1 Mary Winter

Mary married her cousin, John Pratt Winter the younger, on 25th June 1835 when she was 21. The Enniskillen Chronicle and Erne Packet of Thursday 16 July 1835 recorded at page 3, 'June 25, at Agher Church, by the Rev. F. P. Winter, John Winter, Esq., second son of John Pratt Winter, Esq., of Agher, county Meath, to Mary, eldest daughter of the late Samuel Pratt Winter, Esq.' (Cindy Hann email 23 Feb 2015). They lived in Dublin and had two daughters before she died in 1856 in Paris, and he in 1864. A fuller history will be found in 20.6 under John Pratt Winter.

18.7.2 George Winter

George was educated at Trinity College in Dublin, and then sailed to Australia with his sister Arbella in 1838 to join his brothers, Samuel and Trevor, at Tahara near Portland Bay in Victoria. George was 23 when he set sail, and Arbella only 17, so most probably they travelled with someone they already knew; this may have been Cecil Pybus Cooke, then aged 25, who was on the same boat and later married Arbella. George was considered unsuccessful as a sheep farmer but he remained in Australia for close to twenty years and managed his brother Samuel’s sheep runs until 1845. During that time he married Elizabeth, a daughter of James Cox of Clarendon, Tasmania, on 15th March 1843.

In 1854 the family returned to Ireland and eventually bought an estate at Levuka in the Fiji Islands and lived there. Levuka, in the island of Ovalua, was at first (c1857) selected as the European capital, but in 1882 the government was transferred to Suva on the south coast of the neighbouring larger island of Viti Levu. George died in Levuka on 14th September 1883; there is no information about his wife’s death. They had four children:

1. Sir Francis Pratt Winter was born 23rd February 1848, and trained for the law. When he was 39 he became acting Attorney-General of Fiji during the years 1887 and 1888. In 1888 he was transferred to British New Guinea as the Chief Judicial Officer and he remained in that office until 1903, the year of his marriage. During these years he was also a member of the Executive and Legislative Council of New Guinea. In 1892 he was honoured as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), and in 1900 he was made a Knight Bachelor (KB). In 1903 at the age of 55 he married Edith, a daughter of Sir George Moore who lived in Suva, Fiji. For his work in Fiji George Moore was knighted in 1904; he was made a Companion of the Imperial Service Order (ISO); in 1876 he was the First Government Surveyor and in 1880 was promoted to Staff Surveyor; in 1899 he became the Commissioner of Land, Works and Water Supply and the Crown Surveyor. Sir Francis and Edith had no children.

2. St Leonards Crosbie Winter was so named because he was born off St Leonards in the English Channel in 1853. He was drowned as a young man in a hurricane off Fiji.

3. Georgina Winter was born in the same year, 1853, (?twins?), and died unmarried in 1931 at Auckland, New Zealand. She was the last of this branch of the family.

4. Ernest Winter was born in 1856 and was killed by a falling tree.

18.7.3 Samuel Pratt Winter

Samuel Pratt Winter at the age of 18 went to Tasmania in 1834 with his brother Trevor, aged 12, to a family friend, William Bryan.

The Bryans lived at Spring Valley beside Summerhill and so were close neighbours to the Winters at Agher; William Bryan had emigrated to Tasmania in 1824. In 1837 Samuel leased the sheep runs of Tahara and Spring Valley which was later renamed Murndal (1972 photo, 1860 landscape painting by Thomas Clarke, Murndal in the early days) on the Wannon River near Hamilton, 50 miles north of Portland Bay, Victoria. He mostly remained in Tasmania until 1845 while his brother George managed the sheep runs. After 1850 Murndal became his permanent residence, but he made long visits to England and Europe where he collected pictures and books. On 25th December 1878 Samuel died unmarried and was buried at Murndal, which he left to his nephew, Arbella's second son Samuel Winter Cooke. Samuel Pratt Winter's story is told in The Winters on the Wannon by Gordon Forth, Deakin University Press 1991 ISBN 0 949823 21 X. He also has an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

18.7.4 Margaret Winter

Margaret Winter stayed in Ireland and married Nathaniel Preston of Swainstown on 15th October 1839. He was the eldest son of the Reverend Nathaniel Preston, was born in 1813, educated at Trinity and died in 1853. The Preston family had been at Swainstown, which is eight miles northeast of Agher and near Kilmessan, since the early 1700s.

Margaret and Nathaniel inherited the place, which consisted of about 320 acres in 1840 when Nat’s father died. (Nathaniel is a Preston family name and they all seem to have been called ‘Nat’.) In 1838 Swainstown is described by Lewis as “a hansome residence in an extensive and well planted demesne”; the house, which is still occupied by the Prestons, has a large two storey centre block joined to wings by curved sweeps of pillars. It was built during the 1700s.

Margaret died of consumption in Paris on 17th May 1845 aged 28 having had children. The children were minors in 1853 when their father died. Some were then looked after at Cambridge by their aunt, Frances Jane Winter, and her husband Samuel Bomford (26.3.1).

1. A daughter, born 12th November 1840: 'At Swainstown, county of Meath, the lady of Nathaniel Preston, Esq, of a daughter': Dublin Evening Packet and Correspondent 17 Nov 1840 Limerick Chronicle 21 Nov 1840 (Ray Tyrrell email 8 Sep 2017). Nothing further is know about her.

2. A second daughter Preston, b 1842: 'March 27, at Swainstown, county of Meath, the lady of Nathaniel Preston, esq, of a daughter': Dublin Evening Packet and Correspondent 2 April 1842 (Ray Tyrrell email 8 Sep 2017).

A Frances Elizabeth Preston married Charles Yescombe on 21 July 1868 at the Parish Church of St Anne in the Parish of Limehouse in Middlesex: marriage record. The father of the bride is recorded as John Preston, gentleman, not Nathaniel Preston, and the bride is resident of Limehouse, which raises a doubt that this Frances Elizabeth Preston is a daughter of Margaret Winter and Nathaniel Preston. Other evidence suggests that she was and little doubt remains, though the record of John Preston in the marriage record is unexplained. In the legal documents, Mrs E H Bomford of Fitzroy St, Cambridge is refered to as her aunt. Mrs E H Bomford is with very little doubt Frances Jane Bomford, nee Winter, Margaret Winter's sister and wife of Samuel Bomford then living at Fitzroy St in Cambridge (26.3), so Frances Elizabeth's parents are Margaret Winter and Nathaniel Preston. Burke 1912 (not a notoriously reliable source) records Frances Elizabeth and Nathaniel Francis as children of Margaret and Nathaniel.

This Frances Elizabeth Preston died 1 May 1923 (probate: 'Yescombe Frances Elizabeth of St Werbergh’s rectory Bristol widow died 1 May 1923 Probate London 3 July to Edith Morris Travers (wife of Robert Travers) Effects £1262 8s 5d': Ray Tyrrell email 8 Sep 2017) and was buried at Kilmessan. Her husband was Charles Yescombe, the 3rd son of the Rev Morris Charles Yescombe (1798 - 1883) of Bath. Charles was said to have been a sailor (he wasn't, though he had no other known occupation either), 'of good family but not a satisfactory husband'. By December 1878 they 'are now and have for some considerable time past been living separate and apart by mutual consent' and according to Charles Yescombe, 'neither I nor my said wife without the assistance of our friends and relatives have the pecuniary means wherewith to maintain ourselves and our other children the issue of our said marriage'. Charles was then described as 'gentleman' living in Middlesex and Frances was living in furnished apartments in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Charles died on 22nd August 1886 (probate record; and 'Died Aug 21, at 4 Queens Terrace, Southampton, Charles Yescombe, youngest son of the Rev M Yescombe, of 21 Green Park, Bath, aged 37: Bath Chroniclee 2 Sep 1886: Ray Tyrrell email 8 Sep 2017). The 1891 census for The Quay, Instow, Devon, records 'Frances E Yescombe 46 Lodger widow Living on own means, born Ireland'. The 1901 census for Swainstown, Kilmessan, Co Meath, records: 'Frances Elizabeth Yescombe 60 “sister” lady Independent means Widow Meath; Mary Adelaide Margaret Yescombe 31 daughter of above Lyme Regis Dorset and two RC servants' (Ray Tyrrell email 8 Sep 2017). The census return for the house and buildings shows that the house she was in had 30 rooms and 25 windows across the front and 26 outbuildings, and they were the only occupants; presumably it is Swainstown House. The landholder was N F Preston of Brighton, and presumably it was this N F Preston to whom she was 'sister'. That rather points to her being the sister of 3. Nathaniel Francis Preston, born on 6th May 1843 (below), who inherited Swainstown House, and thus she is the daughter of Nathaniel Preston (or he isn't either, which seems unlikely: if he is not, how did he get possession of Swainstown?). In 1911, Frances Elizabeth Yescombe was a boarder at 2 Ladbrooke Road, Epsom, aged 67, Widow, born Dublin. BDM Vol 6a Page 208 records death of Frances E Yescombe, June quarter 1923, Bristol.

The census ages for Frances Elizabeth Yescombe point to her being born in various years, so it is not certain which of the three recorded daughters she might be:

1871 census, aged 28 so b c 1843
1881 census, we don't have an age
1891 census, aged 46, so b c 1845
1901 census, aged 60, so b c 1841
1911 census, aged 67, so b c 1844.

According to the Winter family tree, Frances Elizabeth Preston was born in 1842, so she is put as the second daughter here.

They had 3 children.

a. Edith Morris Yescombe, born at Mortlake in Surrey on 29th March 1867, before her parent’s marriage and was said to have been embittered about it. Legal documents indicate that when she was a few weeks old (i.e. before the marriage) she was placed by her mother in the charge of and at nurse with a person named Aldridge in the South of London. This person subsequently took the infant and declined to part with her. Her grandfather, Morris Yescombe, only by the expenditure of £100 was able to recover her from that position at the age of eighteen months and with the assent of her father and mother take her to his own home where he, his wife and his daughter looked after her interest and welfare (though the 1871 census (RG 10 1031 f.32) records Charles, Frances and all three children in Lyme Regis). Morris Yescombe became Edith's legal guardian in January 1879. Edith married on 27th November 1909 Robert Travers of Timoleague, Co Cork, who was born on 19th May 1855, became a barrister (Judge's Registrar and Secretary of the Probate Court of Ireland), was owner of a large ocean racing yacht Geraldine, and died 2nd April 1935. He had been married twice before and had four children by his previous marriages. Edith had no known children. She died on 18th December 1954.

b. Mary Adelaide Margaret Yescombe, b c 1870, born Lyme Regis and aged 11 in the 1881 census (RG11/1273/108: they were boarders at Shalbourne, Berkshire), died aged about 20. In the 1891 census (PRO Piece No. 1780) she is recorded as being aged 21 with her mother as lodgers in Devon. Mary Adelaide Margaret Yescombe died 8 Sept 1905 Dalkey aged 37 single (Civil record. Self-administered chloroform: Ray Tyrrell email 8 Sep 2017).

c. Lucy Rose Yescombe, b 1871, born Lyme Regis aged 4 days and not named in the 1871 census, aged 10 in the 1881 census (RG11/1273/108), was brought up in Cambridge by her great-uncle Samuel Bomford with the latter’s grandchildren, Lorna and Hugh Bomford (I wonder why since her mother was still alive: see legal documents for an explanation). On 21 September 1898 she was married to the Rev John Herbert Satchell of Dover, at St. Mark’s, Colney-heath, St. Alban’s, by the Rev L G Bomford, MA, Rector (who had just moved there: 26.5.44) (The Times, 22nd September 1898), and she died in 1929 having had two daughters:

i. Una Margaret Satchell, born 1900, d aged about 90 and and spent her latter years assisting in various church activities at Westminster Abbey; and

ii. Nathalie Frances Satchell, born 1904.

3. Nathaniel Francis Preston was born on 6th May 1843, went to Marlborough then to Cambridge where he got his BA in 1865 whilst living with his uncle Samuel Bomford, and then returned to Swainstown where he became a Justice of the Peace. On 25th July 1865 he married Augusta Florence Caulfeild a daughter of Lieut Colonel John Caulfeild of Bloomfield, Co Westmeath who died soon after the marriage of his daughter. Augusta was also a sister to Anna Julia Caulfeild who married Nat’s cousin, Major Francis Winter in 1850 (20.6). Nathaniel died on 28th June 1903 (probate) and Augusta on 1st December 1911. They had no children and Swainstown passed to his cousin, Major Arthur John Preston (1841 - 1930).

4. A third daughter Preston, b 1844: 'At Swainstown, county of Meath, the lady of Nathaniel Preston, esq, of a daughter': Limerick Chronicle 7 Sept 1844 (Ray Tyrrell email 8 Sep 2017). Nothing further is known about her.

18.7.5 Frances Jane Winter 1819-1910

Married Samuel Bomford (1813 - 1898) (26.2.1). The details of these two will be found in Chapter 26.

18.7.6 Arbella Winter – Mrs Cecil Pybus Cooke

Arbella Winter went to Tasmania with her brother George in 1838 when she was only 17. Cecil Cooke, her future husband, was on the same boat and they got married the next year on 18th May 1839 (their Tasmanian marriage certificate is in the Winter Cooke family papers). It looks as though there was a romance on the boat and they married soon after they arrived. The Drogheda Conservative Journal of Saturday 26 October 1839 records at page 4, 'May 18, by special license, in St. John's Church, Launceston, Van Diemen's Land, by the Rev. W. H. Browne, L.L.D., Cecil Pybus Cooke, Esq., eldest son of William Cooke, Esq., of Caen, to Arabella, fourth daughter of the late Samuel Pratt Winter, Esq., of the county of Meath' (Cindy Hann email 23 Feb 2015). Cecil Pybus Cooke was the eldest son of William Cooke (1782 - 1863, see 8.3.1) and Martha Pybus of Cheltenham, and was born in 1813 at Fort St George in Madras, India. In the same year that they married (1839) they moved from Tasmania to Portland Bay in Victoria where, after failing at squatting, they ran a general store for a couple of years. Five years later in 1844 they took up Pine Hill sheep run in Woomera District (South Australia), but they only stayed in sheep for four years because in 1848 they sold Pine Hill and bought Lake Condah cattle station in Victoria, where they lived for the next 40 or so years. When Cecil died in 1895, Lake Condah was left to his younger sons, Cecil and Herbert, but neither held it. Arbella died on 1st April 1892 having had six children.

1. Emily Jane Cooke, born 1842 and died the next year.

2. William Francis Cooke born at Pine Hill 1845, married Josephine McCrae in 1875 and died 1888. They had two children

a. May (‘Midge’) Cooke born c1877, married c1900 H C Swinborne Ward and had two daughters.

b. Frances Cooke born c1880 and married a Mr Harbottle.

3. (The Honourable) Samuel Winter Cooke was born at Pine Hill on 17th March 1847 and educated at Cheltenham and Cambridge, BA 1870. He was admitted to the English Bar in 1872 and the Victorian Bar in 1873. He was a barrister at Melbourne until 1878 when he inherited Murndal from his uncle, Samuel Pratt Winter. He married twice; firstly on 6th January 1883 to Alice Chambers, a daughter of Hugh Lecky Chambers, a Melbourne solicitor, who died in 1903; secondly in 1910 to Margaret Hawdon who died in 1974 in Hythe, Kent. Around 1900 he became a member of the Federal Government but resigned after the death of his first wife. Samuel died in England on 26th June 1929 without children. Murndal passed to his nephew William Lempriere Winter-Cooke.

4. Cecil Trevor Cooke born 1851 at Lake Condah was educated at Malvern and Cambridge, BA 1873. He returned to Australia and worked with his father at Lake Condah from 1874 to 1878. He then went overseas and tried unsuccessfully to start a cattle station in New Zealand, and then a sheep station in New Mexico, USA. After those ventures he returned to Australia and in 1883 married Annie Lempriere, a daughter of William Lempriere of Green Meadow, Balaclava, South Australia. For the next 23 years they were at Murndal, which Cecil managed for his brother Samuel from 1884 till 1907. Cecil died in Melbourne in 1922 having had six children (18.7)

a. Trevor Cooke, born 1889 and died 1899.

b. Lorna Cooke who married E Blair.

c. William Lempriere Winter-Cooke was born c1895, married Marcia Geddes in 1925, inherited Murndal in 1929 and died 1975 having had five children, four girls and a boy. The only son Samuel Winter-Cooke is now at Murndal.

d. Arbella Lorna Cooke (known as “Middie”) m Eric Prosper Trebeck (Snr), grazier and had issue (Clarepw emails 26 & 27 May 2012; Julian Trebeck email 20 Feb 2013)

i. Eric Prosper Trebeck (Jnr) (known as “Pat”), grazier, m 1944 Isobel Mary Smyth (known as “Marily”) and had issue

1. John Lempriere Trebeck, b 6 Oct 1947, grazier, no issue

2. Julian Alexander Trebeck, b 30 Jan 1951, barrister, m(1) Catherine Fidelia McCudden and had issue

a. Sybil Fidelia Trebeck, b 29 Jan 1986, nurse

b. Nicholas Prosper Trebeck, b 18 Oct 1988

Julian and Catherine divorced in 2000. Julian m(2) on 20 Oct 2001 Belinda Dallison Willcocks, nee Crawford, b 6 Jul 1952, judge’s associate. No further issue.

3. Louisa Trebeck (known as “Lisa”), b 6 Jul 1956, d 25 Jul 1993, nurse, m 1988 Edward Sobiesiak, fireman, divorced 1991

ii. Audrey Trebeck, m George Hampton Perry in 1944 and had issue

1. Helen Lempriere Perry, b 29 December 1945, m Hugh Rose in 1971 and had issue

a. Saxon Rose, b 1975

b. Alexander George Rose, b 1977, m Nicole de Jaeger and had issue

i. Thomas Hugh Rose, b 2012

c. Nicola Rose, b 1981

2. Clare Patricia Perry, b 3 September 1948, m Gerardus Wagemans in 1980 and had issue

a. Camilla Minette Wagemans, b 1981

b. George Antonie Wagemans, b 1984

3. Diana Margaret Perry, changed her name to Anna Perry, b 14 July 1952, m Andrew Lovitt and had issue (Anna Lovitt email 23 Oct 2016)

a. Angus Charles Lovitt, b 1981

b. Benjamin George Lovitt, b 1983

c. Sarah Lempriere Lovitt, b 1985

d. Zoe Caitlin Lovitt, b 1992

iii. Anthony Trebeck, m Nola and had issue

1. Scott Trebeck

2. Ross Trebeck, m Lizzie and had three children

3. Elizabeth Ann Trebeck, had a son and a daughter

e. Cecil Winter Cooke, married twice and died in 1958.

f. Bryan Cooke, married and had two sons.

5. Edmund Gerald Cooke, born 1st February 1852 and educated at Malvern in England. He returned to Australia and was apprenticed to a solicitor when it was discovered that he was consumptive. He died 13th September 1872, aged 20, and was buried in Melbourne.

6. Herbert Pybus Cooke was born 18th March 1862 at Lake Condah. Educated at Malvern, England, 1872-80 and then worked on his father’s cattle station. In 1885 he married Agnes Jane Orme, daughter of Francis Knox Orme, a barrister from Co Mayo. They had five children and the family continues through the daughters. Herbert died in 1928 at the property of his son-in-law, Edward C Nicholson, near Corowa, New South Wales.

The story of the Winter and Cooke families in Australia is narrated in Gordon Forth's book The Winters on the Wannon, Deakin University Press 1991 ISBN 0 949823 21 X.

18.7.7 Trevor Winter 1822 - 1885

Trevor Winter as a lad aged 12 in 1834 went off to Tasmania with his brother Samuel. Later on he spent some years sheep farming and then digging gold at Ballarat in the 1850s. He died unmarried on 29th November 1885 at Murndal and was buried there.

18.7.8 Anna Maria Sarah Winter 1824 - 1856

Anna Maria Sarah Winter married Charles Gustavus Walsh, second son of John Walsh of Dundrum Castle, Co Dublin. The Limerick Reporter of Tuesday 17 September 1850 recorded at page 4, 'MARRIAGES . . . In Monkstown Church, Captain Charles G. Walsh, 14th Regt. Bengal Army, to Anna Maria Sarah, youngest daughter of the late Samuel Pratt Winter, Esq. and niece to the late John Pratt Winter, Esq. of Aher, county Meath' (Cindy Hann email 23 Feb 2015). Charles was born in 1810 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He joined the East India Company Service and retired as a colonel. The Bengal Army List of 1849 records some of his early military career. He joined the Bengal Army in 1827 and was gazetted a Captain on Christmas Day 1842, and in 1849 was serving with the 14th Regiment of Native Infantry which since 1847 was stationed at Berhampore near Calcutta. He was a linguist and could speak both Persian and ‘Hindoostanee’ and had passed the ‘college examination’ in both. On 16th January 1848 he was granted sick leave and, since this was over a year before the publication of the army list, he may have returned home. It is possible that his marriage occurred during that leave since the first child was born c1850. The marriage lasted only a few years because Anna Maria died in Singapore in 1856. There were three girls:

1. Minna Walsh, born c1850 and died unmarried

2. Arbella Walsh (‘Ella’) born c1852 and married the Rev Courteney Clarke. Their grandchildren are still alive.

3. Louisa Walsh (‘Lovie’) born c1854, married an army officer and had three daughters.

18.7.9 The Winters and Early Victoria

George, Samuel, Trevor and Arbella Winter were all shipped off to Australia by their guardian John Pratt Winter at the youthful ages of 23, 18, 12 and 17 respectively. The first two to arrive, Samuel and Trevor, went to friends in Tasmania in 1834 and they soon joined the first permanent settlement in Victoria at Portland Bay. The Portland Bay settlement was formed by Edward Henty of Tasmania who landed there on 19th November 1834. This settlement was considered an unsuitable site because the soil was poor and the bay unsafe for shipping. The next settlement was made at what was to become Melbourne in August 1835 and this area proved so suitable that others followed soon after from Tasmania. These settlers brought stock with them and commenced to push their way into the interior. They were met by Thomas Mitchell who had travelled through unknown territory from New South Wales in the north. The reports of Mitchell and the success of the first settlers caused great excitement. Herds of sheep and cattle were driven overland and every available craft brought more animals and passengers from Tasmania, and they speedily occupied the best parts of the new territory. The non-Aboriginal population of Victoria rose from 177 in 1836 to 11,738 in 1841.

Our two young Winters, Samuel and Trevor, the grandchildren of Trevor and Mary Bomford, were amongst those who pushed inland from Portland Bay and leased the sheep runs of Tahara and Spring Valley (Murndal) in 1837. In 1839 George and Arbella who had just arrived from Ireland joined them (they arrived in Hobart on the bark London, 388 tons, leaving London on 14 December 1838 and arriving in Hobart on 3 April 1839, with Cecil Pybus Cooke and Robert Savage (Hobart Town Courier, 5 April 1839, page 2: Cindy Hann email 18 Feb 2015)). Robert Savage (1818 - 1888) was related to John Pratt Winter's wife Anne Gore. He also took sheep from Tasmania to Victoria and was a squatter at Casterton, north of Portland, in 1840. He has an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography and corresponded with Trevor Winter well into the 1860s. Their life would have been rough and hard initially but it was George, the so-called ‘unsuccessful sheep farmer’, who bore the brunt of such a life. Samuel did not arrive permanently until 1845 and the two ‘just married’ Cookes, Arbella and Cecil, went to Portland Bay in 1839, tried squatting in the outback but failed and returned to Portland Bay where they ran a general store for two years; it was not until 1844 that they leased Pine Hill sheep station and finally settled at Lake Condah cattle station in 1848. Trevor, by then about 30, gave up sheep farming and tried his hand at digging for gold at Ballarat. Gold was first discovered there in 1851 and the gold rush got under way in 1852; the goldfield riots were in 1854 but it is not recorded when Trevor actually moved to the goldfields, only ‘during the 1850s’.

See report by Gordon Forth in The Latrobe Journal, No. 25, April 1980 re the Winter Cooke family papers. A photocopy of 'The Winter Cooke papers' is in the State Library of Victoria. The State Library of Victoria also holds 'Reminiscences and papers' by Samuel Winter Cooke. See also a listing of burials in the Murdal private cemetery.

18.7.10 Summary of Trevor Bomford & his Family

Trevor Bomford, born 1760, attorney, ‘Six-Clerk’ 1781 - 1797 in Dublin, married September 1789 Mary, born c1750, only daughter and heiress of Alexander McDonnell of Dublin and widow of John Bateman of Dromultin, Co Kerry. Mary's first marriage to John Bateman took place in May 1771 in Co Mayo. She had one daughter, Jane Maria Bateman, born c1772, who married twice 1st to Conway Blennerhassett c1793 and secondly to Pierce Crosbie in March 1803. Jane Maria died in 1833 having had children (15.8.5).

Trevor died February 1797 and Mary in 1809 (July probate) in Gardiner’s Place, Dublin. Both were buried in Laracor Churchyard. They had two daughters, both minors, and George Bomford was appointed their guardian.

1. Mary Anne (Marianne) Bomford, born c1790, married 13th February 1810 Francis Chute of Chute Hall, Co Kerry, Captain Kerry Militia, eldest son of Richard Chute (born 1763) and Agnes Bateman. She died 1815 having had four children (18.5.4); Francis Chute remarried secondly Arabella Denny and thirdly Penelope Antonia Herbert, and died 12th August 1849.

a. Richard Chute of Chute Hall, born 22nd May 1811, educated Trinity College, MA, JP and DL of Co Kerry married 1st 18th October 1836 Theodora Blennerhassett. She died 25th July 1845 having had three sons and two daughters. He married 2nd Hon Rose De Moleyns, second daughter of Thomas, 3rd Lord Ventry; she died 21st April 1898 and he on 13th September 1862 having had a further two sons and five daughters.

b. General Sir Trevor Chute, KCB, married 1868 Ellen eldest daughter of Samuel Browning of New Zealand. He died without children on 12th March 1886.

c. Rowland Chute died unmarried August 1851.

d. Mary Chute married William Harnett and had children.

2. Frances Rose Bomford, born c1792 at Rahinstown, married in Dublin 20th July 1812 Samuel Pratt Winter, 3rd son of Samuel Winter of Agher and brother to Arbella Bomford (18.8.4). He was born 25th February 1779 at Agher, BA Trinity 1800, and died 11th December 1831. She died 16th October 1831 having had eight children (18.7).

a. Mary Winter, born 21st April 1814, married her cousin John Pratt Winter 25th June 1835 and died 11th November 1856, in Paris (20.6).

b. George Winter, born 17th May 1815, educated TCD, emigrated to Australia in 1838, married 15th March 1843 Elizabeth Cox of Tasmania, moved to Fiji and died there 14th September 1883. They had four children, the eldest being Sir Francis Pratt Winter of Fiji and New Guinea.

c. Samuel Pratt Winter, born 17th July 1816, emigrated to Australia in 1834, established Murndal, Victoria, and died near Melbourne, unmarried, on 25th December 1878.

d. Margaret Winter, born 21st November 1817, married 15th October 1839 Nathaniel Preston, eldest son of Rev Nathaniel Preston, of Swainstown, Co Meath. She died in Paris 11th May 1845 having had two children who were minors when their father died in 1853. Their guardian was Samuel Bomford of Cambridge.

e. Frances Jane Winter, born 5th August 1819, married 11th July 1839 Samuel Bomford. See Chapter 26.

f. Arbella Winter, born 4th March 1821, emigrated to Australia 1838 and there married 18th April 1839 Cecil Pybus Cooke (1813 - 1895) of Lake Condah. She died 1st April 1892 having had six children.

g. Trevor Winter, born 21st August 1822, emigrated to Australia in 1834 and died unmarried at Murndal 29th November 1885.

h. Anna Maria Sarah Winter, born 13th August 1824, married Colonel Charles Gustavus Walsh, EICS Bengal Army, 2nd son of John Walsh of Dundrum Castle, Co Dublin. She died in Singapore in 1856 having had three girls.

18.8 George Bomford, the Elder, 5th Son of Stephen

George was born in 1759 and was brought up at Rahinstown concentrating on farming. He was aged 41 when his father, Stephen the younger of Rahinstown, died in 1806. George inherited all the estates but this must have caused a family row because some were entailed. There are no deeds concerning this row and it may have been sorted out quite amicably between the two brothers, George and Robert, though it must have caused George considerable embarrassment. Two years after Stephen’s death George handed over the entailed estates (18.8.3). It was apparent earlier on (15.5) that Stephen could not get on with his eldest surviving son Robert and there will be more about this later. We really do not know what happened but it is interesting that in the days when these things mattered, Robert broke away from family tradition and was buried in Rathcore Churchyard where no other Bomford had been buried.

George married Arbella Winter in 1809 and they had four children; George the younger and Samuel who both lived to old age; the other two, Margaret and John, died in infancy. They were married less than five years when George died in January 1814, and Arbella in September of the next year. Both deaths appeared to be unexpected and of course the two children were left as orphans to be brought up by the Winters. The concept of a family row is confirmed by the choice of guardian. Arbella’s brother, a Winter who was so desperately short of cash that he had to lease Agher, rather than George’s older brother Robert Bomford, was chosen.

George Bomford 1759 - 1814, artist unknown, probably c 1809. The light in the upper left is an artefact: the original is dark. Click on the image for an larger view.

A portrait of George hangs at Crodara. This large portrait used to hang in the dining room at Oakley Park with the other family portraits. It measures 26 by 27 inches, in a gilt frame six inches deep and there is no clue as to who the artist might be. George is seated facing right with his head turned slightly towards the painter, his right arm is resting on the chair arm and he is holding a paper. He is wearing a black coat with a high collar and this, with a dark background, makes it a very dark picture; however the effect is that the face is highlighted and impressive. He has blue eyes, brown hair going a little grey, and a prominent nose - a good example of what was known in the family as “the Bomford nose”. Incidentally when “the Bomford nose” was combined with a jutting chin they were then known as ‘nutcrackery’, George at least was not ‘nutcrackery’. His face is firm though kindly and one gets the impression of an elderly man, probably in his late forties, who would know his own mind and yet be approachable. George married when he was 50 and the portrait may have been painted about that date, 1809, but it does not look to be by the same artist as any of the other contemporary portraits. There is no portrait of Arbella, but there is one of her father and another of her elder brother who became guardian of her two children when she died.

Before his marriage George was farming and he was a member of the ‘Farming Society of Ireland’, but he has not been mentioned in many land deeds and so the land he farmed must have been his father’s although he may have rented it. We know he was farming because twice before the turn of the century bankrupts had sold his cattle. In 1795 he leased 1,200 acres around Drumlargan and bought it in 1808. This land was expensive and was not fully paid for until just after Arbella’s death. However the Drumlargan land was the foundation on which George’s descendants built and was particularly important to George, since he could not have Rahinstown and the other entailed lands.

We now deal with the documents concerning this period starting with a couple of leases.

18.8.1 Lease - Clonfad 2nd May 1807

George Bomford of Drumlargan leases to Samuel Dopping of Lowtown, Co Westmeath the lands of Clonfad consisting of 186 plantation acres (301 statute) of arable land and 45 plantation acres (73 statute) of red bog in the Parish of Killucan, for three lives or 31 years at a rent of £352.

Witnessed Ralph Dopping, brother to Samuel

Myles O’Reilly of Margaret Place, Attorney at Law. (Book 592 Page 44 No 400465)

Both Samuel and his younger brother Ralph are in the Dopping family tree (9.3.6). They were great grandsons of Antony Dopping the Bishop of Meath. Samuel was born in 1761 and was 46 at this date. Only part of the 567 acres of Clonfad was leased to Samuel Dopping probably that portion which was adjacent to Lowtown.

18.8.2 Lease - Cluide c1809

There is no initial lease for this townland, but it appears in the rent roll of George the younger when he was still a minor. Cluide, also known as Clude, Clonduchat or Cloondecacagh is in the Parish of Smarmor in the Barony of Ardee, Co Louth. It is a very small townland of only 25 acres mostly pasture on rising ground.

It is hard to believe that this little townland, so far away from any Bomford land, would have been purchased. It is much more likely that it was part of a marriage settlement and the obvious choice is that it was part of the dowry of Elizabeth Sibthorpe. Elizabeth married Stephen the younger in 1745 (8.2) and her family all came from County Louth.

Another possibility is that it was Winter land and formed part of Arbella’s dowry. It is with this in mind that the Cluide lease has been placed here and not in 1745. 1745 is more likely but one does not want to appear to grab too much land too early:

18.8.3 Release of Rahinstown etc by George to Robert Bomford 10th May 1808

Reciting:

1. 7th February 1714, Garrett Wesley of Dangan re-leased to William Palmer of the City of Dublin the lands of Arradstown or Arratstown consisting of 77 plantation acres (125 statute) in the Barony of Deece, for three lives at a rent of £27.4.3, (4.4).

2. 10th December 1691, Sir Arthur Langford of Summerhill re-leases to Thomas Bomford of Old Town, Co Meath, the townlands of Baconstown consisting of 507 plantation acres (821 statute), and of Rahinstown consisting of 396 plantation acres (642 statute), both in the Barony of Moyfenrath, for three lives renewable for ever (1.9.1).

3. Previous to 17th April 1745 the estate of William Palmer (Arradstown) passed to Stephen Bomford, father of Robert and George Bomford.

4. The estate of Thomas Bomford (Rahinstown and Baconstown) was vested in Stephen Bomford.

5. 17th April 1745, (8.2), on Stephen’s marriage to Elizabeth Sibthorpe the above land was placed in trust for the eldest son of Elizabeth’s children only, with a guarantee of £3,000 and £1,000 both with 5% interest for the younger children; and £1,000 or whatever the trustees think proper; and an annuity of £150 to be paid to his wife on his death. (The parties to this deed are all listed.)

6. 18th April 1745, the marriage took place and resulted in many children, both male and female, some of who died before their father Stephen. Trevor Bomford had died leaving two daughters. Those others who had died had no issue.

7. 4th October 1804, Stephen made his will (18.1.2) and recorded the Deed of Settlement of 17th April 1745 (8.2). His children who were alive when he made his will were Robert, eldest son, and four younger sons, namely Anthony, George, Ephraim, and Chichester, and two daughters namely Margaret and Frances Jane.

Of the several sums of £3,000, £1,000 and £1,000 - Anthony should get £1,000 but if Anthony should die in Stephen’s lifetime it should go to George.

George is to receive all else - Lands, property, personal goods, cattle, furniture, etc; George had to pay for Stephen’s funeral and all Stephen’s debts.

8. Anthony died during Stephen’s lifetime, unmarried and without issue.

9. Those living at Stephen’s death were his wife Elizabeth, Robert the eldest son, George, Ephraim, Chichester, Margaret (Mockler), and Frances Jane (Massey).

10. Elizabeth the widow ‘hath lately died’.

11. Robert Bomford has paid £1,000 to Ephraim Bomford (19.2, though that is recorded as a year after this deed).

“This indenture witnesses that George Bomford doeth release unto Robert Bomford the lands of Arradstown, Baconstown and Rahinstown,” and Robert undertakes the payment of “the several sums of £3,000, £1,000, and all interest” (5%).

Rahinstown, Baconstown and Arrodstown were clearly placed in trust for the eldest son, so Stephen’s will had to be over-ruled and George, the younger of the two living sons, had to hand back the land to Robert his elder brother. Thus, although George lost the land, he gained £3,000 in cash from the settlement, being his share plus the share of Anthony who had died.

Dirpatrick. In 1745 Stephen’s marriage settlement (8.2) stated that Dirpatrick was to carry the cost of Elizabeth’s annuity. This land has not been mentioned in this document, perhaps because Elizabeth had died but later documents do indicate that Dirpatrick was handed over to Robert even though it was not entailed.

Something very similar to this indenture is to be found in the Registry of Deeds Book 614, Page 249, Number 419086. This was signed by both George and Robert, and witnessed by Miles O’Reilly and John Tew, both Attorneys at Law in Dublin.

18.8.4 Marriage - George Bomford & Arbella Winter 22nd March 1809

One of the earliest marriages in the records which still exist of the newly rebuilt Agher Church reads “George Bomford of Clarkestown Esq. married to Miss Arbela Winter, 2nd daughter to Samuel Winter of Agher, on 22nd March 1809.”

This must have been a large wedding since so many of both families were living nearby. Arbella was 36 at the time. Those of the family who might have attended may have been George’s relations:

Uncle: David of Gallow and his wife Sarah

Brothers: Robert of Rahinstown and Maria his wife together with a number of their small children; Ephraim; Chichester (Ephraim and Chichester were in the army but they might have been home)

Sisters: Margaret Mockler from Trim; Frances Jane and her husband Col Cromwell Massy

Cousins: David’s children -

Isaac of Gallow and Jane his wife; Jane and her husband Duke Cooper of Great Down, Mullingar; Anne and her husband John North of Whitewell, Rochfortbridge; Sarah and her husband John Coates of Bridestream, Kilcock.

Trevor’s children: Mary Anne and Frances Rose - since they were wards of George they may have been bridesmaids

Arbella’s relations: -

Parents: Samuel and Margaret Winter of Agher

Brothers: John Pratt Winter and his wife Anne Gore, of Tullyard, Trim and some of their older children; Rev Francis Pratt Winter, the ‘hunting parson’ of Rathconnell; Samuel Pratt Winter

Sister: Anna Maria Winter

Cousins: A number of the Reynell family from both Killynon and Reynella, Co Westmeath

One wonders whether the ceremony was carried out by the Rector of Agher, John Bolton, or by Arbella’s brother Francis Pratt Winter, the Rector of Rathconnell, probably by both.

There are two deeds concerning the marriage; the settlement, a jointure and a Winter mortgage to raise money for the jointure, and a number of references in Arbella’s will and later marriage settlements. These later references clarify the deeds about the marriage and have been brought into the text so that all is included in the right context.

Marriage Settlement, 21st March 1809

Between

1. George Bomford of Clarkestown, Co Meath

2. Henry Hamilton of Ballymacoll, Co Meath and John Pratt Winter of Tullyard, Co Meath (Trustees)

3. Ephraim Bomford, brother to George, then a Captain in the Royal Marines, and Rev Francis Pratt Winter of Killinan, Co Westmeath

4. Samuel Winter of Agher and his youngest daughter Arbella Winter

On the marriage of George Bomford and Arbella Winter (one deed records the date as 5th November 1809 but this is wrong):

1. George Bomford receives £4,000 from Samuel Winter (see mortgage below)

2. George Bomford makes a “Limited Trust for 300 years” of the following lands:

Drumlargan
Ballydongan, Baldungan or Dunganstown
Ordnellstown or Edinstown
part of Clonlyon
Knock, Knockturn or Knockturin
part of Monaloy or Moneloy, all in Co Meath and
Clonfad in Co Westmeath

The trustees are Henry Hamilton and John Pratt Winter.

From this trust £4,000 is set-aside for the children of the marriage and, if George should die, then Arbella is to receive an annuity of £300 (the figure recorded in the 1863 deed) or £500 (the figure in this deed).

3. Arbella is entitled, upon the death of Sir John Blunden of Castle Blunden of Kilkenny Town, to the principal sum of £3,000 or £1,500 plus interest. (It is clearly written ‘£3,000 or £1,500’). These sums are charged upon the estates in Kilkenny, Tipperary and Dublin which were the estates of John Robbins deceased:

Robertstown or Robberstown
Dysert or Dysertbeg
Capahensen or Capahensy

(all in Co Kilkenny wherein John Robbins has fee farm);

Ardsign
Castlecasker Castlecaquer or Castlecosquer Ballyduffe
Coolrodeg
Coolreany or Coolrany
Coolsillagh and
Kelmaeshane

(also all in Co Kilkenny);

Coppanasmear, in Co Tipperary; and
Roper’s Rest, in Co Dublin.

These lands were leased by Arbella Winter in trust to Henry Hamilton and Ephraim Bomford

Witnessed: Myles O’Reilly of Dublin, Attorney at Law; James O’Reilly of Mill Castle, Co Westmeath

(Book 610 Page 29 No 416231)

The trust set up by George records that the £4,000 was ‘for the children’ and there is no mention of an entail. One problem to reconciling this deed with the later ones is that the later ones write of George and Arbella which could apply to George the elder and his wife Arbella or to George the younger and his wife Arbella, and it is very difficult to sort out which George and Arbella were which. However one of the Georges did entail the lands because the deeds of 1861 (30.2.2) and 1863 (30.4.1) not only record the entail but both record that the £4,000 was for the ‘younger children’, and the words ‘Limited Trust for 300 years’ also only appears in these later deeds. On balance I believe that it was George the elder who entailed the lands.

Arbella’s money came from her cousin, Lady Blunden, who was one of the Robbins of Ballyduff, Co Kilkenny. Originally Joseph Robbins, who died in 1725 (Vicar’s Extract of Wills), acquired property in County Kilkenny, probably those estates listed above, and lived at Ballyduff. His son, another Joseph Robbins (1695-1761, Vicars), inherited and married Margaret Piers, a daughter of Sir Henry Piers, 3rd Baronet of Tristernagh Abbey, Co Westmeath. They had a number of children of whom we are interested in two:

The youngest daughter, Margaret Robbins, born 21st September 1735, married 1762 and died at Agher 17th November 1814; her husband was Samuel Winter of Agher (1741 - 1811). They had five children of whom Arbella Winter was the 2nd daughter (above and 20.4)

The eldest son, John Robbins, who inherited Ballyduff and died 3rd July 1769. He had an only daughter who inherited:

Frances Robbins, born c1765. She was placed under the guardianship of her aunt Margaret and Samuel Winter. On 28th June 1786 Frances married Sir John Blunden, 2nd Baronet of Castle Blunden in Kilkenny Town. They had no children and when Frances, Lady Blunden, died on 13th January 1809 the Robbins estates passed to her cousins, the five children of Samuel and Margaret Winter, after the death of her husband in 1818.

So the money mentioned above was a one-fifth share of the whole Robbins estate, of which there are later references, particularly in 20.6.5.

An interesting side issue: James Freney, the famous highwayman of Co Kilkenny of around 1780, was the son of one of the servants of Joseph Robbins the younger. One of Joseph’s sons who had been brought up with James Freney at Ballyduff spent many years trying to capture the highwayman, but never succeeded.

The original trustees outlived George and Arbella and three of them were still alive when George the younger was married in 1832:

Hamilton of Ballymacoll was born in 1760 and died in 1844. He was the second son of 36 children, which his father had by his three wives. (36 children is not a misprint!).

John Pratt Winter of Tullyard and later of Agher died in 1846.

Ephraim Bomford probably died in 1815 or a little later.

Rev Francis Pratt Winter of Killynon, who was party to the deed but does not appear to be a trustee, died unmarried in 1847. It is interesting that this deed places the Rev Winter at ‘Killinan’, which is actually Killynon, whereas the Winter history places him at Clondrisse from 1800 to 1820. These two houses were both Pratt and then Winter properties and are on opposite sides of the Mullingar to Kells road and fairly close to Rathconnell Church, where Francis was the vicar from 1800 to 1819. Killynon was permanently leased to the Reynell family by Samuel Winter (1741 - 1811) and the lease was probably part of the marriage settlement of 1767 when Jane Winter married Rev Edward Reynell, vicar of Rathconnell, until his death in 1788. In any event at least four generations of Reynell’s lived at Killynon from the late 1700s into the 1900s, so it is more likely that the Rev Francis Winter was based at Clondrisse.

18.8.5 Mortgage of Tullyard for £4.000 21st March 1809

Between:

1. Samuel Winter of Agher, and his eldest son

2. John Pratt Winter of Tullyard, Co Meath and

3. George Bomford of Clarkestown, Co Meath

George Bomford received £4,000 upon his marriage with Arbella Winter youngest daughter of Samuel Winter. This £4,000 plus 6% interest was raised by a mortgage to George Bomford on Tullaghard, alias Tullyard.

This money is exclusive of the money due to Arbella Winter from the estate of Dame Frances Blunden, wife of Sir John Blunden of Castle Blunden in Kilkenny Town.

Witnessed: Oliver Bomford (One of the ‘Unplaced Bomfords’ 17.9.1); Myles O’Reilly.

This deed has written on it that it was recorded in Book 607, Page 389, No 16232, but both the number of the book and of the deed were checked and nothing was found in the Registry of Deeds. [Could it be book 609 and no 416232?]

Tullyard, pronounced ‘Tullahard’, was the second Winter house and is in the Parish of Trim about three miles north of Trim. It consisted of about 195 statute acres. John Pratt Winter built the house and lived there from 1803 until after his father died when he moved to Agher.

Later his eldest son Samuel lived at Tullyard from about 1825 until 1846.

This mortgage was paid off in 1835 and that deed follows. The amount was £4,000 and not £400 as in the deed.

Settlement of Tullaghard Morgage 17th July 1835

The mortgage on Tullaghard for £400 dated 21st March 1809, given by George Bomford of Drumlargan to Samuel and John Pratt Winter of Agher, was paid off this day.

Samuel Bomford, Cornet in H.M. 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards and Legatee in the will of Arbella Bomford, his mother, is party to this.

Witnessed: John Barnes of 11 Baggott Street, Attorney of Dublin; and Joseph Barnes of 100 Marlborough Street, Dublin, Esquire (both sons of Thomas Barnes of Westlands House Moynalty).

(1837 Book 3 No 55)

18.8.6 Death of George Bomford the Elder January 1814

There are no deeds concerning George’s death, but the probate of ‘George Bomford of Clarkestown’ was recorded in the Prerogative Wills and the Prerogative Inventories, and we do have a Tax Return and a copy of the Prerogative Inventory, but no actual will. J.F. Ainsworth (5.7.1) reports that there was a will but it is no longer included with the documents.

The family Bible gives the date of his death as January 1814. He was buried at Laracor.

Tax Return of G. Bomford 20th January 1814

A list of “Carriages, Servants, etc at residence 27 Gardiner’s Place in the Parish of St Georges Dublin City.” This printed form is split into columns, which I have not tried to duplicate. The form has not been signed.

Carriages

4 wheel Chariot
2 wheel Gig
2 wheel Jaunting Car

Animals

Three excellent horses for general use
No dog

Male Servants

James Commons - General Capacity
John Murray

On the back is written in note form:

G Bomford Funeral Expenses
For very particular reasons this paper not to be torn.
Remember no person to touch this paper
Front 2 2 1 2 2 2 11
Back 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 15
Total 26

It looks as though George started this on the 20th, was taken ill and died within the next 10 days. This is one reason why it is thought that George died suddenly. In addition at this date Arbella was about two months pregnant so there was no question of a lingering sickness. The note on the back may have been written by Arbella.

Both the male servants were mentioned in Arbella’s will and they were the only ones to receive a legacy. James Commons was the coachman and John Murray just ‘a servant’, but more likely to be George’s ‘man’; as such they would travel with the family. The conclusion from this is that the family were in Dublin at this time and that George died there.

The series of figures on the back are a mystery; the only thing that I can think of is that they were to do with the Window Tax on No 27 Gardiner’s Place. If so there were 11 windows overlooking the street and 15 at the back, and these numbers would be reasonable for a four-storey house.

A four-wheeled chariot was a smaller version of a coach, drawn by a pair, or sometimes two pair, of horses in which two passengers sit inside facing forward. By this date it would be sprung and so give quite a comfortable drive. The coachman and groom sit high up at the front and there was a platform at the back on which two other servants could stand. Luggage would be carried either on the rear platform or on the roof behind the coachman.

A gig was drawn by one horse inside two long curved shafts. It had a light body but because the carriage was set high it overturned rather easily. They were popular because they were light, fast and fairly cheap.

The jaunting car was a purely Irish vehicle. Two-wheeled and open, it was drawn by a single horse in shafts. The passengers, two or three a side, sat back-to-back facing outwards on a long seat that ran down the centre of the car.

I expect, that George and Arbella would use the chariot to go to town from Clarkestown using two horses, and that the third horse would follow with the luggage and any other servants in the gig. The jaunting car may have been left in Dublin.

18.8.7 George’s Estate - Prerogative Inventory 22nd ? 1814

This deed is titled, “Attested copy of Inventory of Estate and Effects of George Bomford deceased extracted from the Registry of Court of Prerogative.”

No month was entered in the date although a space was left for it.

The inventory is not a balance sheet in the modern sense, but it would appear that the estate was in credit by £1,791.6.0.

Cattle, horses, furniture etc in the country	£3,440	Due to Mrs Dalton	£4,050
Furniture in Town	£400	½ year’s Interest on above	£126.10.0
Money in Sales-master’s hands	£3,229	Mrs Mockler	£530
Due from I W	£4,000	H. Higgins	£250
Amount due from R	£500	Rent in Country	£298
Mrs F	£400	Rent in Town	£45
Rent from Westmeath and Louth	£320	F. Coffey	£35
Due for corn	£700	Greville the Carpenter	£36.17.0
		To Apothecary & Tradesmen in Town, and Tenants wages	£200
		Colonel Crosbie	£30
	£12,989	To Arbella Bomford	£5,596.7.0

£3,440 for cattle, horses, furniture etc in the country plus the £3,229 credit in sales master’s hands indicates a considerable turnover of cattle every year. The cattle amounted to about £6,000, which at the 1802 rate of £20 a beast represents a herd of about 300, half of which had been sold that winter. The custom was that a new lot of calves would be bought at the fairs in the spring for about £5. However the larger farmers, like George, would breed as many calves as possible and only go to the fair to make up numbers. These calves would be fattened on the lush Meath pastures and sold, not that autumn, but the year after in the late summer or autumn. This would mean that the Bomford herd numbered about 300 in the summer and about 150 in the winter. The pasture in south Meath is most suitable for cattle and it is interesting that no sheep or pigs are mentioned in the inventory. However George probably had a few of each for his own consumption.

The £700 due for corn would be due from the sale of the surplus of the 1813 harvest; much would have been used for winter-feed. George would have had a fairly large acreage under tillage, mostly oats and a little wheat. Hay would not show in the accounts because it would be used as winter feed, but again a considerable acreage of hay would have to be cut to keep a herd of 150 over the winter. In fact hay would be the main diet for the animals in the winter and only a little corn would be used.

The labour used on the farm were apparently the tenant farmers, (Tenant’s wages). It was not always the case that paid labour was used, it was often the custom that tenants had to work in lieu of paying rent and sometimes they even had to work for nothing or loose their lease. However it is good to see that George used the pleasanter system of hiring labour and paying wages.

Rents were due to be paid twice a year so at best these rent figure would be half of the annual figures. In fact these rent figures do not mean much as they would show what owing on a particular day in January or February. However the £320 from rents in Westmeath and Louth confirms that Cluide, the only land that George had in Louth, was one of George’s properties at this date.

The £298 rent, which George had to pay in the country, shows that he may have leased land, perhaps Clarkestown from the Winters. However it is more likely to be ‘head rent’ due to the head landlord unless the land was ‘fee farm’. Other expenses, which had to be covered, were (in 1802)

Church Cess at 2d per acre
Tithes at 2/- per acre
Public Cess at 3/- per acre

all of which totals to £26.5.0 for each 100 acres, but some of this might be paid by the tenant.

£400 for furniture in town must be at 27 Gardiner’s Place, which was not owned but rented at £45, or £90 a year.

“£4,000 due from I.W.”. This is clearly ‘I.W.’ and the ‘W’ must stand for Winter. This will be the marriage settlement money which was not paid until 1835 and which was covered by the mortgage on Tullyard. ‘I.W.’ should really be ‘J.W.’ for John (Pratt) Winter.

‘Due from R’. This £500 must be owed by Robert Bomford and probably was left over from the time when Rahinstown was handed over to Robert by George.

£4,050 ‘Due to Mrs Dalton’ should read Mrs Dallas. This was the final payment on the recently purchase on Drumlargan and surrounds. The interest works out at about 6½%”. (see 20.8).

Mrs Mockler is George’s sister, Margaret. It is not known when she died but this entry at least proves that she was alive in 1814. Her husband had died sometime between the years 1806 and 1812.

Colonel Crosbie must be Colonel Fierce Crosby who in 1803 married Jane Maria Bateman, daughter of Mary and Trevor Bomford, George’s younger brother. George was the executor of Mary’s will of 1809 and this £30 may have been left over from that time.

The debts to Greville the carpenter and to the apothecary speak for themselves, but we are left with:

Mrs F. (£400 credit)
H. Higgins (£250 debit), and
F. Coffey (£ 35 debit)

and to date these people have not been identified. A Henry Higgins is mentioned at 9.2.1.

18.8.9 Entries in the Family Bible 1811 - 1815

The following extracts from the ‘Big Family Bible’, printed in 1795, and inscribed on the Book Plate “Eliz. Bomford 1801” were copied out by Wilfred Bamford at Oakley Park. It is not known what happened to this bible. The later bible given to John Francis Bomford in 1866 is at Crodara.

“Eliz Bomford” is Elizabeth (Sibthorpe) the wife of Stephen the younger. Unfortunately she made no family entries but the children of her son George the elder and of George the younger were all entered. The following concerns George the elder; the entries of George the younger will be found in 25.1.

“Children of George and Arbella Bomford

George Bomford was born in No 27 Gardiner Place, Dublin, on the 11th April 1811

Margaret was born 25th September 1812; she died aged 2 years & 8 months (i.e. May 1815)

Samuel Bomford was born in Gardiners Place, Dublin, 17th of September 1813

John born July 1814, died the same month.

George Bomford, their father, departed this life January 1814

Arbella, their mother, Septr 1815.”

Everywhere there was a high death rate of children at this time, but two out of four is particularly hard. Then in addition both parents died and all in the space of 20 months.

George died January 1814 (father)

John died July 1814

Margaret died May 1815

Arbella died September 1815 (mother)

Arbella died of ‘a long neglected disease’ (18.9.3) but the other three died within 16 months of each other, which makes one think that some infectious disease was responsible.

The story of George and Samuel following the death of their mother (below) is taken up in Chapter 20.

18.9.1 George Bomford’s Houses

George had two houses, Clarkestown House near Agher and a town house No 27 Gardiner’s Place. It is apparent that the family moved from one to the other fairly often although latterly most of their time seems to have been spent in town.

No 27 Gardiner’s Place

Trevor Bomford’s wife, Mary, died in Gardiner’s Place in 1809 (or 1808) and George was appointed guardian of her two children who were both married from there. I am assuming that this house was No 27. No lease has come to light but it became George’s town house. It is not known whether George originally leased it and lent it to Mary, or whether Trevor or Mary leased it and it was passed to George on her death.

In those days the area around Mountjoy Square was very fashionable with Saint George’s Church just around the corner in Temple Street. Mountjoy Square was not completed until 1818, and No 27 was new when the Bomfords first got it around the turn of the century.

No 27 is still there but now it is an overcrowded tenement and probably due for demolition, but there is still a ‘court’ behind which no doubt housed the carriages, horses and servants mentioned in the Tax Return.

Clarkestown House

When Rahinstown was handed over to Robert in 1808, George had to find another place to stay and the deeds of 1808 to 1812 show him “of Clarkestown”. This house had been built by Samuel Pratt (1688 - 1771) of Agher and it was mentioned in his will; on his death it was inherited, together with Agher, by Samuel Winter (1741 - 1811). It is sited on the only part of Gallow, which lies to the south of the road between Agher and Ferrans Lock on the Royal Canal, and it became the second Pratt and then the second Winter house. It may well have been where some Bomfords lived prior to 1800, but George was the first Bomford to live there definitely from 1808 until his death in 1814; then his niece and ward, Frances Rose, and her husband Samuel Pratt Winter moved in from 1814 to 1820; it was apparently empty thereafter but it is thought that, when the Winters were in Paris and Agher was leased, Samuel Winter (1796 - 1867) stayed there; he was left in Ireland to keep an eye on the property until the family returned in 1825.

Clarkestown was accidentally burnt down in 1829 and not immediately rebuilt, but the Ordnance Survey of 1836 states that it was ‘two storied and slated’ and occupied that year by T. Potterton and later by the Rev John Potterton. It was valued at £10 in 1854.

According to a letter of 1936 by G. L. Bomford there may have been thoughts that George Bomford the younger might have lived there; GLB wrote “... During their minority (George and Samuel) their house at a place called Clarkestown near Agher, where their father lived and where I presume they were born, was burned down accidentally. Instead of rebuilding the old house or building a house on Drumlargan, they bought a new property, Oakley Park, ...”

The house was finally pulled down about 1950. During the 1960s Dr Beryl Moore wrote, “Clarkestown Big House has been removed and a modern house built instead. A row of fine arches survive in the yard and one has ‘1829’ on its keystone.” An indication that a new yard was built immediately after the fire.

Homan Potterton says of Clarkestown House (email to Richard Bomford 30 Sep 2006), 'Clarkstown House belonged to Thomas Coates and he bequeathed it in 1794 to his grandson, James Potterton (son of his daughter, Bridget), and James was the father of Thomas and Rev John Potterton whom you list as owners of Clarkstown. It remained in the Potterton family till 1924. James Potterton died in 1807 when his eldest son, Thomas, can have been no more than nine years old. This allows for a 'window' between 1807 and about 1820 (when Thomas P was still a minor) for Clarkestown to be rented out to the Bomfords (per your chapter 18). I cannot reconcile the earlier Winter ownership with the fact that Thomas Coates owned it. It was again always leased out by the Pottertons after Thomas Potterton's early death in 1839.'

18.9.2 Arbella Bomford Buys a Town House 27th October 1814

Conveyance of a house in Temple Street, Barony of Coolock, from Gustavus Brooke of Hardwicke Street, Co Dublin, to Arbella Bomford of Gardiner’s Place, Co Dublin, widow.

Reciting:

1. On 1st June 1783 the Hon Sackville Gardiner of the City of Dublin and Brussels conveyed to Graves Chamney of Platten, Co Meath, a triangular plot of ground on the west side of Temple Street at a rent of £16 a year.

2. On 3rd September 1788 Graves Chamney conveyed this land to Francis Graham at a rent of £45.10.0 a year

3. On 10th August 1797 Francis Graham willed all the premises in Temple Street to his son William Temple Graham.

4. On 7th May 1800 the plot was passed to Nicholas Loftus Thomas Wilson and to five others (who are all listed and most of whom were married to women of the Gardiner family). The plot was now split into six plots.

5. On 17th March 1811 Gustavus Brooke acquired a plot and built two houses fronting Temple Street, and insured each against fire for £700. Arbella Bomford bought one of these houses, covering 20 feet along the street and stretching back 140 feet to the rear, for £900 and a rent of £100 a year. Entrance to the stables was through Graham’s Court. Her neighbours were Mr Taylor on one side and Thomas Thompson Esq. on the other.

Witnessed: Samuel Winter and Myles O’Reilly

(Book 680 Page not given No 168182)

The Dublin Almanack shows “Mrs Bomford” living in No 21 Temple Street in 1815 and 1816. Arbella died in September 1815 so she had the house for just under a year. In her will she instructed that the house be sold and this was done before 1817 when the Almanack shows someone else living there.

The Gardiner’s Place house was given up when Arbella moved round the corner to Temple Street. She was only 38 or 39 when she moved with young George, aged 3½. Margaret, just over 2, and Samuel just over 1 (John had died in July). This was to be her permanent residence. Clarkestown House was not used again by her, and so all her servants would be with her - James Commons the coachman, John Murray and her personal maid, Margaret Curry, who also looked after the children. No doubt there was at least a cook as well.

Some of the names appearing in the deed are familiar:

Gustavus Brooke was mentioned in the Oakley Park deed of 7th November 1817. However the William Graham in this deed is not the same William Graham who sold Oakley Park to George the younger in 1837. However John Graham of Platten was the Head Landlord of Oakley Park at the beginning of the 1700s (24.6) and he sold Platten to Thomas Chamney (died 1735). Thomas’ son, Graves Chamney of this deed, 1723 - 1794, inherited but lost Platten over a game of cards.

18.9.3 Arbella Bomford Dies September 1815

Arbella made her will at No 21 Temple Street on 29th July 1815. In August she and the children went to England, to Cheltenham, where no doubt she hoped the waters there would cure her trouble, whatever it was. At the end of August she made a codicil to her will at Cheltenham, and, since this was witnessed by a doctor and his aid, she may have been in a hospital. Two weeks later she died, on 11th September 1815. John Pratt Winter’s history of the Winters tells of her death.

“10th Sept 1815. My sister Arbella Bomford died of a long neglected disease [If this was written on the 10th then she didn't die on the 11th]. She lived at Cheltenham where she had been since the beginning of August having expressed a wish to be buried at Laracor beside her late husband G. Bomford. I proceeded with her remains to Bristol having agreed with the Captain of the vessel for their conveyance to Dublin and left her servant John Murray to accompany them. I rejoined Anne (his wife) at Bath who had arrived there with the children. ...I accompanied the last stage of my sister’s funeral from Dublin to Laracor where she was interred.”

Unfortunately there are no records covering this period concerning Laracor, and no gravestones have been uncovered in the churchyard. Numerous Bomfords have been buried there since Colonel Laurence, George’s great-grandfather, was buried there in March 1720

18.9.4 Will of Arbella Bomford 29th July 1815

The will starts with a request to “be interred in a decent but private manner” in Laracor Churchyard. There follows a number of bequests:

1. The house in Temple Street is to be sold and the proceeds are to be given to my nephew Francis Winter, 4th son of my brother John Pratt Winter of Agher, when he reaches 21. If he should die before the age of 21 then the bequest should go to my nephew John Winter, 3rd son of my brother, and if he should die then to my brother John Pratt Winter.

2. To my son George, - The contents of the Temple Street house, the plate, china, house-linen etc. He is also to receive all the money, stocks, mortgages etc except the following

3. To my son Samuel who is to receive the money due from the case Bomford v Hamilton now being heard in the Court of Chancery. (This refer to her marriage settlement of 1809 which is quoted at length in the will The money was £3,000 and £1,500 to be paid to Arbella when Sir John Blunden died; he died in 1818.)

All legacies to my two sons are in trust until they reach the age of 21. If George should die before Samuel then Samuel is to receive George’s share, and vice versa. If both my sons should die then share and share alike to my brothers John Pratt Winter, Rev Francis Pratt Winter and Samuel Pratt Winter.

4. To my coachman, James Commons of Drumlargan, a life annuity of £20.

5. To my own maid, Margaret Curry, a life annuity of £20 and “I further request that she should continue to look after my two sons provided their guardian agrees..”

6. My brother John Pratt Winter is to be my sole executor and guardian to my two sons.

Witnessed: Myles O’Reilly and his wife Georgina E. O’Reilly.

18.9.5 Codicil to Will 27th August 1815

Codicil by Arbella ‘at present resident at Cheltenham’.

7. To my youngest brother Samuel Pratt Winter, £500

8. To Myles O’Reilly Esq. of Margaret Place, Co Dublin, £500

9. To my eldest brother John Pratt Winter, My four wheeled carriage and my favourite horse, ‘Lawney’.

10. To my servant John Murray, £20

11. To my eldest son George, all my books.

Witnessed: Henry C. Boynaque M.D. and David Walsh ‘st. to Dr B’

18.9.6 Probate of Will 12th February 1816

The prerogative wills give this date for the probate, which confirms John Pratt Winter of Agher as the sole executor and guardian of the children. Arbella’s address is recorded as Temple Street, Dublin. Thus young George and Samuel are now orphans to be brought up with the Winter household at Agher. Their story continues in Chapter 20.

Next Chapter: Chapter 19

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